A vote on giving landmark status to the H.M. Patterson & Son building was postponed last month during an Atlanta Urban Design Commission meeting.
The 90-year-old mortuary — which is listed as one of Atlanta's most endangered historic places by the Atlanta Preservation Center — is owned by Houston-based Service Corporation International. The potential "landmark buildings and sites" status comes at an important time, as indications point towards new plans for the property.
“It is the City’s understanding that the property is for sale,” according to a spokeswoman, who added that the city isn’t involved in any potential property transactions and could not provide “any details about any offer.” SCI did not immediately respond to a message on Jan. 30.
SCI commissioned Beck Group to create a concept for a mixed-use office, residential and hotel complex on the "prime real estate," according to the American Institute of Architects Georgia Association's website.
The firm’s project description notes that the site is “currently dedicated to an underutilized but historically significant business.” The summary continues:
This project rightly exemplifies the worst fears of preservationist as an exploration of maximizing development value of a parcel of land, which was our charge as designers, without apparent regard for the intrinsic historic value of the structures located on it. Discussions with the client acknowledged this friction, and ideas were developed (although not depicted in this submission) that considered protecting and preserving large sections of the original (Philip Trammell) Shutze design, including the chapel interiors, and incorporating them into the public, retail and dining spaces at ground level. Ultimately, we believe that the best solution would in fact acknowledge and incorporate precious historic building elements into the new design, to forge a more permanent memory of the legacy of this site.
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The property is protected during the designation process by “interim controls” allowed by the city’s historic preservation ordinance.
The vote was delayed because “the property owner’s representative wanted more time to respond to the proposed designation,” the city spokeswoman said.
The next meeting will be held Feb. 14 at 4 p.m.
If the funeral home were awarded the landmark status, approval would have to be issued before anyone could make certain updates, such as changing the exterior appearance; erecting a new structure; or demolishing or move the building/site in whole or in part.
The effort to save the building is not new. In 2000, the executive director of the city's Urban Design Commission at the time said the funeral home did merit the historic designation of a landmark — but the commission had been too short-staffed to get to it.
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